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| 3. The Scuola Grande Archive. Saletta adjacent to the Cancelleria. |
The archives of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco is preserved in two separate locations: the seat of the Archconfraternity of San Rocco and within the Venice State Archives. This subdivision has its origins in the Napoleonic suppression of April 25th, 1806, and as a result, a great number of documents can be found in the State Archives, despite the fact that the Scuola was re-established after a short interval, on July 16th of the same year, 1806.
The Archives located in the Scuola Grande Arciconfraternità di San Rocco
The documentation conserved by the Archconfraternity (AScGrSR) (see fig. 3) consists of a core of approximately 300 pieces (XV-XX centuries) relating to the true and proper activity of the Scuola, and another 56 pieces pertaining to the Commissarìa Costantin de Todero Marcorà (XV-XX centuries), the only one of its kind (among the 50 that were founded) that is still active today.
At the time of Napoleon’s suppression, the papers had not been organized in a complete and homogenous way, and a small portion of the antique archive – limited in quantity, but of special interest and quality – remained in the Scuola. From that point on it was seen as integral part of the eighteenth century archive which was gradually forming. Quite often they continued to use the antique logs to record the writings, as is the case of brotherhood, which continued from 1478 until 1965.
To mark the substantial continuity of the institutions, the Scuola organized and took inventory of the documentation preceding 1806 with that which came afterwards, thereby establishing a single foundation, in which earlier documentation precedes, in any given series, that of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The foundation is divided into 20 series, related to:
• acts of the foundation and mariegola;
• birth register;
• notarial registers;
• sittings of the cancelleria;
• general meetings;
• general administration;
• missals;
• bank books;
• confratelli;
• testaments, mansionerìe and commissarìe;
• charity;
• visitors’ book;
• cult;
• works;
• accounting;
• inventory of the archive;
• registers of protocol;
• church books, printed and miscellaneous;
The core constituted by the Commissaria Marcorà, presents several series related to
• establishment acts and statute;
• accounting;
• land registers and inventories;
• registers of protocol;
• miscellaneous;
The archive has been inventoried up until 1935, the year indicated as the end of the work. The archive produced by the successive Arciconfraternità after that date is conserved in the Cancelleria della Scuola, and is subject to the vigilance of the Superintendent of the archives for the Veneto.
The Archives located in the State Archives of Venice
The documentation conserved in the State Archives (ASVe, San Rocco) is subdivided in two distinct parts, achieved in two consecutive moments. The first consignment was made in accordance with the Napoleonic decree of suppression on the 25th of April, 1806 (however, the Scuola was re-established with the decree of the July 16th). Whereas the second took place between 1883 and 1885, at the conclusion of judicial proceedings involving the state property process. More recently the foundation has increased in size with the transferral of part of the State Archives of Verona (9 July, 1964), Padua (16 July 1996) and Treviso (19 July 1996), of documents which originally belonged to the Scuola di San Rocco. These documents, relating to properties situated in the aforementioned provinces, were consigned to the cultural institutes of the various cities responsible for that territory and from there were passed to the State Archives when they were instituted following the law of the 22nd of December, 1939 n. 2006.
All archival materials have been reordered under the care of the State Archive of Venice in agreement with the Scuola Grande: the recognition of pieces and the punctual acknowledgement of the different documentation with autonomous numbering:
• First consignment (nn.1-661);
• Second consignment (nn.1-855);
• Bollettini pro (nn. 1-170);
• Imprestanze (nn.1-15 in buste 1-5);
• Intimazioni (nn.1-9);
• Libri messe (nn.1-74 in buste 1-30);
• Registri delle cere (nn.1-131);
• Registri scontro banco (nn.1-45);
• Rubriche mensili (nn.1-4);
• Commissaría Costantin de Todero Marcorà. Cauzioni (buste nn. 1-8);
• Atti provenienti dall'Archivio di Stato di Verona (nn.1-238 in buste 1-21);
• Atti provenienti dall'Archivio di Stati di Treviso (buste nn. 1-14);
• Atti provenienti dall'Archivio di Stato di Padova (buste nn. 1-21).
The foundation conserves documentation as copy beginning from 1031, notices of documents from the 9th century to 1884.
To offer the representation of the unity of a fund conserved in two different institutes, the cataloguing includes, in addition to the material conserved in the State Archive, the works dating before 1806 conserved within the Scuola.
